''In Prism'' is Polvo's fifth

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, and their first since 1997's '' Shapes''. It was recorded by

Brian Paulson Brian Paulson is an American musician, record producer and audio engineer from Minnesota, best known for recording albums by Slint, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Superchunk and Wilco. Paulson grew up in Bemidji, Minnesota, but moved about 200 miles sou ...

and was released on

Merge Records Merge Records is an independent record label based in Durham, North Carolina. It was founded in 1989 by Laura Ballance and Mac McCaughan. It began as an outlet for music from their band Superchunk and music created by friends, and has expande ...

on September 8, 2009. The track "Beggar's Bowl" was streamed online.

Reception

''In Prism'' received a

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

score of 79 based on 14 reviews, indicating a generally favorable critical reception. Jason Lymangrover of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

writes: "Polvo's first studio album since 1997's Shapes, 2009's In Prism is a solid return to mathy form. Although 12 years is a long hiatus, it's hardly noticeable that time has passed, with the exception of a few machinery and personnel updates ..Along with getting mathy and ultra-precise, the band takes the opposite approach and elongates passages, stretching songs into psychedelic

space rock Space rock is a music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drummin ...

territory and surpassing the eight-minute mark on several occasions. As an album, In Prism may not quite live up to the explosiveness of

Today's Active Lifestyles ''Today's Active Lifestyles'' is Polvo's second studio album. It was produced by Bob Weston and released on Merge Records in 1993. Cover Early versions of the cover art featured red tigers in the yellow colour field, but these were soon removed ...

-- it's more like the calmer (and produced) Shapes. But even if it's not their best ever, it's a valid comeback that should appease longing fans." Despite a middling score, John Everheart of ''Under the Radar'' called it "a sprawling, psychedelic masterwork, rife with knotty tangles of discordance and serpentine riffs." Stuart Berman of Pitchfork wrote: "''In Prism'' could be the first Polvo album where the melodies leave as lasting an impression as the noise around them, with Bowie tapping into a more guileless mode of expression that rarely revealed itself before."

Track listing

#"Right the Relation" - 5:36 #"D.C. Trails" - 6:57 #"Beggar's Bowl" - 5:01 #"City Birds" - 5:21 #"Lucia" - 8:15 #"Dream Residue/Work" - 5:48 #"The Pedlar" - 3:37 #"A Link in the Chain" - 8:47

Personnel

Polvo are credited as the primary artists & producers. The remaining credits are adapted from

: * Chris Eubank - Cello *

River Guerguerian River Guerguerian is a multi-percussionist, composer, and educator. Canadian-born, River is of Armenian-Egyptian descent and currently lives in Asheville, North Carolina. Education In 1989, Guerguerian received his Bachelor of Music from the Man ...

- Percussion *

- Engineer, Mixing, Producer * Alan Douches - Mastering * Julian Dreyer - Assistant Engineer * Michael Klayman - Photography * Ashley Worley - Photography * Gordon Zacharias - Photography

References

{{Authority control Polvo albums 2009 albums